Pee Mak is a fun enough watch out of curiosity for the mythology its based off of and for its bombastic nature, but for that very reason it lacks much substance in its horror or humour. All jokes that were actually funny are immediately ruined by a character instantly clarifying the joke afterwards. Either that or its followed with the old "dramatic crescendo into silence" gag or the odd "bad joke" sound que, like during a weird scene in which a man holds his decapitated arm stump up with a "wah wah wah" trumpet noise during, which just felt very dumb.
In terms of horror, all tense scenes are always met with obnoxious sound-ques and constant rising-crescendos, with the actors always putting on an overexaggerated 'terrified' face that makes any scene devoid of any subtlety at all. It wouldn't have been so bad if the film led up to this kind of thing but its spread across all three acts of the film so nothing changes. So all in all the film isnt particularly funny or scary. FOR ME at least. Unless you're into a three-stooges-esque horror routine, which if you are, you will have a blast with this movie. I guess judging if this film is your kind of thing can be summed up in a single scene in which one of the characters asks Nak if she could throw her baby overboard to lighten up the weight of a boat...Twice. If thats the kind of bombastic and nonsensical humour your looking for then by all means. Unfortunately for me it just didnt hit the mark.
Not to say that there isn't anything to salvage. I will say all four actors do a fantastic job at playing off one another and acting like bumbling morons but its also complemented with a lot of overacting (either a good thing or bad depending on perspective). There is a particularly effective horror scene in which the character with the glasses (Ter?) goes to Nak's house, and that whole sequence I will say was very tense. Sometimes the nonsensical humour actually works in its favour, such as when characters reference celebrities who couldn't have possibly been alive during the mid 19th century, which was probably the funniest aspect of the film, because it actually felt high brow since it was never addressed. The third act in particular was so chaotic that I enjoyed it quite a bit. The presentation as well is beautiful. I would very much like to see more South-East Asian films set in this historical time period.
Ultimately, a few little nudges here and there and this film would have been a horror-comedy masterpiece. For now, though, it just didn't resonate with me as it did with others.
In terms of horror, all tense scenes are always met with obnoxious sound-ques and constant rising-crescendos, with the actors always putting on an overexaggerated 'terrified' face that makes any scene devoid of any subtlety at all. It wouldn't have been so bad if the film led up to this kind of thing but its spread across all three acts of the film so nothing changes. So all in all the film isnt particularly funny or scary. FOR ME at least. Unless you're into a three-stooges-esque horror routine, which if you are, you will have a blast with this movie. I guess judging if this film is your kind of thing can be summed up in a single scene in which one of the characters asks Nak if she could throw her baby overboard to lighten up the weight of a boat...Twice. If thats the kind of bombastic and nonsensical humour your looking for then by all means. Unfortunately for me it just didnt hit the mark.
Not to say that there isn't anything to salvage. I will say all four actors do a fantastic job at playing off one another and acting like bumbling morons but its also complemented with a lot of overacting (either a good thing or bad depending on perspective). There is a particularly effective horror scene in which the character with the glasses (Ter?) goes to Nak's house, and that whole sequence I will say was very tense. Sometimes the nonsensical humour actually works in its favour, such as when characters reference celebrities who couldn't have possibly been alive during the mid 19th century, which was probably the funniest aspect of the film, because it actually felt high brow since it was never addressed. The third act in particular was so chaotic that I enjoyed it quite a bit. The presentation as well is beautiful. I would very much like to see more South-East Asian films set in this historical time period.
Ultimately, a few little nudges here and there and this film would have been a horror-comedy masterpiece. For now, though, it just didn't resonate with me as it did with others.